Christ Church resident recounts storm experience

Christopher Ricardo Browne had just ended a long call with his daughter, trying to alleviate her fears about thunder and lightning, when he heard a loud noise coming from the eastern part of his house.

He rushed to the middle bedroom to find that the wind had lifted a large section of the roof.

“I was sitting down watching TV at first and then I called my daughter because she gets scared with this type of weather. It was around minutes to 7 and when I heard the noise and saw what happened I just said ‘Jesus comfort me’,” he said.

The No. 18 Rollins Road, Silver Sands, Christ Church resident said he had over ten years of experience working with various District Emergency Organisations (DEO) and never thought something like this would happen to him.

“I does go around and assist with the DEOs; this is some years now so it wasn’t nothing to be frightened about,” he said.

Browne said he immediately pressed into action and tried to rectify the situation, tying two heavy-duty straps around the rafters and securing them on the nearby burglar bars to help secure the roof structure.

He explained: “This is something I learned through the DEO, it acts like a hurricane strap.”

However, another section of the roof lifted in another bedroom, creating an even larger hole.

Browne said there was not much he could do at that point, other than place buckets and containers where the water was coming in.

“Those holes caused damage to other parts of the roof. Some parts of the ceiling were waterlogged and I had to get a lot of buckets to catch water. I also had to strap the front part of the house too.”

The unfortunate event left the three-bedroom wall house in a mess, with Browne having to move around furniture where the roof was not leaking, he had several sheets and clothes on the floor soaking up water and many buckets around the house.

The 46-year-old added that he was receiving help from one of the DEOs and the Welfare Department.

(SZB)